BHUBANESWAR (India), June 20: India successfully tested an Indian-built surface-to-air missile on Monday for the second time in two days, a defence ministry official said. The missile Akash was tested at a range in eastern Orissa state. It was fired at 11:15am (0545 GMT) from a mobile launcher at the Chandipur-on-Sea testing range, 200 kilometres northeast of Bhubaneswar, the ministry official said.

The 700 kilogramme (1,540 pound) missile, which hit a flying drone, was last tested on Friday.

Akash, which can track 100 targets simultaneously with onboard radar, can move at a speed of 600 metres a second and deliver a 55 kilogramme warhead across 27 kilometres in 50 seconds.

Akash is being developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation which launched in 1983 a project to build an array of weapons. It hopes to cap the programme with a ballistic missile which can fly 5,000 kilometres.—AFP